Nex Metals widens WA gold platform as Kookynie recovery reaches 71%

WTAC joint venture builds a 3,021 km² exploration platform

Nex Metals Explorations Ltd (ASX:NME) has expanded its potential Western Australian gold footprint to 3,021.7 square kilometres, giving the junior explorer a much larger regional platform without requiring NME shareholders to fund the joint venture’s exploration spending directly.

The portfolio spans East Scotia, North Scotia, the Keith-Kilkenny Trend, Kookynie-Niagara and West Point in and around the Eastern Goldfields. The headline area remains conditional: East Scotia is still awaiting acquisition and transfer, while all 18 other relevant applications must be granted before the full portfolio exists as described. Pending applications do not provide exploration rights.

NME holds 40% of the joint venture, with WTAC owning 60% and providing 100% of the capital and operational funding as an unsecured loan repayable from operations on commercial terms. NME leads project identification, acquisition and operational execution. The structure offers exposure to a broad exploration pipeline, but leaves WTAC with the majority of the joint venture’s economics and places future repayment terms within the project structure.

East Scotia moves from acquisition to target generation

The quarter marked the shift from portfolio assembly towards geological screening. At East Scotia, the partners tested four rock specimens from E24/223 using portable XRF and submitted them for 76-element laboratory analysis. Those results were still pending at quarter-end and are intended to be combined with mapping, historical drilling, structural interpretation and reprocessed geophysics.

The work builds on the East Scotia licence expansion, which had previously taken the project area to about 873.1 square kilometres. West Point remained at the database-validation stage, while the joint venture appointed geologist Jason Livingstone to lead operational activities across the wider portfolio.

Kookynie test work adds gold recovery and tungsten optionality

At Kookynie, selected laboratory testing produced the quarter’s clearest technical result. Direct cyanidation recovered 52% of the gold from one sample, carbon-in-leach treatment of unground material lifted that to 59%, and a light grind to P80 106 micrometres before carbon-in-leach increased recovery to 71%.

The result is encouraging in the narrow sense that a modest preparation change materially improved recovery under the tested conditions. It does not establish commercial recovery across the broader tailings deposit. The sample was selected, further optimisation was underway, and representative sampling, engineering and economic assessment remain outstanding.

The same work identified 0.05% tungsten, equivalent to 0.063% WO₃, in sample CAC069, with scheelite reporting to the gravity concentrate. That raises the possibility of a parallel or sequential tungsten stream from the same tailings feed, although the company says scheelite recovery and commercial viability have not been established and XRD analysis was not undertaken. The testing follows the Kookynie processing lease application, covering an approximately 100-hectare site about 10 kilometres from the tailings project.

Processing site remains an option rather than a commitment

NME and WTAC have applied for a General Purpose Lease at the proposed processing location, which is connected by an existing predominantly all-weather road. The site is currently preferred for infrastructure owned by the joint venture, but the application remains subject to assessment and approvals, and a toll-processing route is still being evaluated alongside an in-house facility.

The company also continued discussions in Egypt’s Eastern Desert after attending the Egypt Mining Forum, including meetings with Shalateen Mineral Resources Company. North Henai remains under evaluation as a potential gold-producing project, but no substantive exploration or field activity took place there during the quarter.

Low cash outflow supports near-term runway

NME ended September with A$359,000 in cash after using A$52,000 in operating activities and A$7,000 to repay borrowings. It reported no cash payments for exploration, evaluation or project development during the quarter, with activity funded or accrued through the WTAC joint venture. The company also had an undrawn A$750,000 unsecured facility from Allen’s Business Group, with no set maturity date and no interest chargeable.

On the Appendix 5B calculation, cash and available facility represented 21.32 quarters of funding at the quarter’s relevant outgoings. That figure is a mechanical liquidity estimate, not a forecast of project costs: it excludes future spending needs that could arise as tenure is granted, field programs begin, metallurgical work advances or processing decisions require capital.